New SKS problem

I think Cosmo is your problem here, and on that model it can be dangerous. You likely have some in the chamber that has now hardened from firing causing headspace issues, hence the poor extraction. As for the FTF's, you likely have some of the gunk in you FP channel. This is the dangerous part; it can also cause your FP to stick while protruding, converting you SKS into full-auto. I believe there has been a fatality or two from this as it caught some unlucky folks off guard. I would take the brake cleaner to it, and get after that chamber with a bronze brush.

Try different ammo. Believe it or not, there are some junk/out of spec rounds that come out of Russia. Also, what did the fired case look like, after the bolt was hard to open?

Yea, if it's "new" to you, you need to remove all packing grease. Strip it as much as possible and break out the diesel and every scrubber/brush you own.. then lube it. and use good ammo

Id say cosmo in the firing pin channel. I had my rifle for several years and thought I had it clear. Went to the range on a day with single digit temps and it went full auto. The only way to get it all out is with heat and elbow grease. Works fine now in all conditions.

HB

The first thing I'd do is go back to the original fixed magazine. Then I'd give the whole entire rifle a good cleaning. As ohers have already mentioned having a floating firing pin that could be caked with cosmo Is very dangerous in these rifles and could lead to a chain firing (full auto) condition. The one other thing I'd check is to see if the operating spring is not in backwards.
Even though mine was not caked in Cosmo. When I got my Yugo I took a short length of rain gutter and made a troth out of it and I filled it with kerosene. I then took the stock off and put the rest of the rifle in the Kerosene for 24 hours. Then took it out and scrubbed every inch of that thing inside and out. Then put it back in the troth again with clean Kerosene and scrubbed it again. I got to even using a heat gun in certain areas where it was caked on in little crevasses. Now almost a year later and many rounds down the pipe the rifle still operates perfectly. I do not use the removable mags in mine though.

Certaindeaf said:

Yea, if it's "new" to you, you need to remove all packing grease. Strip it as much as possible and break out the diesel and every scrubber/brush you own.. then lube it. and use good ammo

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Diesel gas is the best for gooed up SKS's!

AKElroy:
A guy was killed by his SKS at a range in CA a few years ago. There was a link to an article in "The Sacramento Bee" newspaper, which described the slam-fire.
There was no info regarding whether the ammo had Berdan or softer Boxer primers.

I can't quite figure out how the muzzle rose under his chin, unless he chambered a round while somehow standing with the barrel under his head.

Ignition Override said:

AKElroy:
A guy was killed by his SKS at a range in CA a few years ago. There was a link to an article in "The Sacramento Bee" newspaper, which described the slam-fire.
There was no info regarding whether the ammo had Berdan or softer Boxer primers.

I can't quite figure out how the muzzle rose under his chin, unless he chambered a round while somehow standing with the barrel under his head.

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kicked the bolt open and slam fire?

AKElroy said:

I think Cosmo is your problem here, and on that model it can be dangerous. You likely have some in the chamber that has now hardened from firing causing headspace issues, hence the poor extraction. As for the FTF's, you likely have some of the gunk in you FP channel. This is the dangerous part; it can also cause your FP to stick while protruding, converting you SKS into full-auto. I believe there has been a fatality or two from this as it caught some unlucky folks off guard. I would take the brake cleaner to it, and get after that chamber with a bronze brush.

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I don't. It sounds like a popped primer issue to me and bits of primer are stuck in the firing pin channel.

Sent from my mind using ninja telepathy.

I don't. It sounds like a popped primer issue to me and bits of primer are stuck in the firing pin channel.

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I had a similar issue with a Yugo that I had. Some FTF's and more smoke than usual coming out of the action after a shot. I stopped shooting and went home to disassemble. There were three brass discs from pierced primers wrapped around the firing pin. I had cleaned this gun with gasoline and there was no cosmo present anywhere on the gun. I ordered a Murray's spring loaded firing pin and the problem was solved. http://www.murraysguns.com/sksown.htm

frankenstein406:
Maybe the slam-fire killed the guy in CA if the recoil of multiple shots pushed the gun just enough to the rear, or he was shooting in a 'bumpfire' style?

Disassembling your bolt and thoroughly cleaning the firing pin, firing pin channel and bore would be my first step. Use whatever solvent/oil you prefer but dry out the firing pin channel as best as possible (shop air can really help move things along).

When you say the bolt locked shut, was that on a last shot? As in it didn't lock to the rear and instead held fast closed without ejecting? If so, you could have pressure issues. I'm not very knowledgeable on the effects of pressure in a chamber but I've heard that intense pressures can cause a bolt to stick. Perhaps leaving the ammo in the cold caused some sort of change that would influence such things?

frankenstein406:
Maybe the slam-fire killed the guy in CA if the recoil of multiple shots pushed the gun just enough to the rear, or he was shooting in a 'bumpfire' style?

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I'm betting he simply failed to have the muzzle down range when he let the bolt fly.

mljdeckard said:

but with this, the bolt also locked shut. Once it was so tight I had to kick it back open. What would make an SKS bolt lock up like that?

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RUST.

A couple of different guys I know had this happen to them after shooting yugoslavian surplus ammo (corrosive), and not cleaning with soap & water.

The gas system gets fouled up with rust, and will occasionally bind up the action to the point it becomes a bolt gun.

Do a detailed disassembly, look for rust.

If you find any, get the rust off with 000 or 0000 steel wool. Then give a nice HOT soapy bath. Blow all of the water out with an air hose and let everything dry well. Check for rust again in a day; if any more forms, give it another bath, dry, repeat.

Once no more rust forms, lightly oil and don't shoot any more corrosive ammo.

(If there is no rust, check for pitting in the gas system; might have got an unlucky SKS, that had previously been abused with corrosive ammo)

Some time back after I restored a Romanian back to original condition (horrible plastic aftermarket stock) I took the rifle out for a test run. On the 80th round fired (recent production Wolf) the bolt froze in the closed position. There was no budging it. As it is my practice to not do gun smithing on the firing line, especially when I am only 90% certain that the stuck round is expended, I pulled the rifle and went on to shoot other things that I had brought for the day. When I got home I was able to determine that the round was spent so I tapped the brass out with a brass rod. Looking at the brass I could see that the bottom 25% was slightly bulged. Nothing very noticeable, but it was bulged. The first thought that crossed my mind was headspace. I was looking at the possibility that my birth year rifle Romanian, a 1958, might end up a wall hanger. I hopped in the car and headed to my gun smith.

After I told my smith what had happened and showed him the round my first question was whether he thought that it was a headspace issue. I like to get bad news up front. His opinion was that if it was a headspace issue the malfunction would have reared its head long before eighty rounds. He considered a headspace issue to be highly unlikely. He then asked me what I had done to clean the rifle after I acquired it. I told him that I had done the usual, boiled the bolt, cleaned the bore and receiver. He then asked me what I had specifically done to clean the firing chamber. As I stood there I realized that I might have overlooked the chamber as I would not have specifically observed it when viewing the bore. He told me that a layer of cosmoline or varnish from older ammo (I had no idea what the previous owner had shot) might have baked onto the chamber wall. This might have prevented the round from seating entirely but enough to go into battery and fire. As I made my way through my 80 rounds powder residue could have backed up into the chamber further adding the layer on the chamber wall. Eventually there was enough layers of crud on the wall that the round was backed out enough to still fire but allowing that bulge at the very rear of the round. It sounded plausible to me.

Without taking up more of my gun smith’s time I took the gun home and cleaned out the firing chamber with various solvents. Sure enough, after the top layer of powder residue was gone a whole bunch of something else started coming off. I’m not sure whether it was baked on cosmoline or varnish, but there was a significant amount of it.

The net result of my cleaning the chamber is that the rifle is now 100% functional.